11.2.15

This is a sketch for my latest cartoon for Familienjuwelen. On cheap paper I sketch and play around with my panels. Then I trace that onto nicer paper with a light table. To see the final result follow the link here!

3.2.15

My former art-collective Palatti,
that I co-founded (but left a few years back to concentrate on other
work), is celebrating its 10th year together! To commemorate this, the
Berlin book launch of their most recent publication is joined by a
retrospective presentation, and I am so happy to be invited to be part
of that.Note that the book launch is in Motto, the exhibition however, in Kotti-shop. These two wonderful Kreuzberger art hubs are in walking distance of each other so be sure to visit both!

When we worked together in Prishtina, Kosovo in 2006, it wasn't the first time we traveled from our respective countries to work together, but it was the most intense, logistically- and with regard to form and content, the most challenging project we had done up till then. It was particularly exciting (and I don't mean that in a frolicing sense) because the politically tense situation in Kosovo was tangible, tender, near, omnipresent. At the end of the project we were sure we wanted to work together again and named ourselves, 'Palatti', derived from 'Pallati i Rinise', the name of the building we working in.

The project had a singular influence on me personally and on my work. To note on the latter; I lay aside my painting as an approach to making art so that I could work 'on the road'. Instead I focused on drawing. To prepare for the exhibition, I read a reasonable amount of articles, books, and miscellanea on subjects about or relating to Kosovo. What moved me the most, were a few comics by the artist and journalist Joe Sacco. I was immediately hooked by the narrative power of image and word, and the inclusion of himself in his journalism. So it was there that I started to include narration in my drawings, essentially the beginning for me of making comics. Ironically, it was also the reason I left Palatti a few years later, when I starting working on my first comic book (which I still am f.y.i.). Maybe one day I'll be back!

12.1.15

Treasury of Mini Comics Volume 2 is out and contains one of my Tijuana Bible mini comics!! It's a beatiful A5 hard-cover edition published by Fantagraphics and edited by Michael Dowers. There are a few interviews and so many great little comics in there.

Hi, my name is Anna Bas Backer. I'm a comic - and visual artist based in Berlin and the Netherlands. I am currently working on my first graphic novel. A teenage comic drama. I also regularly cartoon about my family life and make short stories, illustrations and wall paintings.